from the ancient
Sumerian city
Ur, which flourished in the
third millennium BC, can be seen at present-day Tell el-Mukayyar in
Iraq. , a city of the
Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan, which was rebuilt six or more times, using bricks of standard size, and adhering to the same grid layout—also in the third millennium BC showing the
Pyramid of the Sun,
Pyramid of the Moon, and the processional avenue serving as the spine of the city's street system The emergence of cities from
proto-urban settlements, such as
Çatalhöyük, is a non-linear development that demonstrates the varied experiences of early
urbanization. The cities of
Jericho,
Aleppo,
Byblos,
Faiyum,
Yerevan,
Athens,
Matera,
Damascus, and
Argos are among those laying claim to
the longest continual inhabitation. Cities, characterized by
population density,
symbolic function, and
urban planning, have existed for thousands of years. In the conventional view, civilization and the city were both followed by the
development of agriculture, which enabled the production of surplus food and thus a social
division of labor (with concomitant
social stratification) and
trade. Early cities often featured
granaries, sometimes within a temple. A minority viewpoint considers that cities may have arisen without agriculture, due to alternative means of subsistence (fishing), to use as communal seasonal shelters, to their value as bases for defensive and offensive military organization, or to their inherent economic function. Cities played a crucial role in the establishment of political power over an area, and ancient leaders such as
Alexander the Great founded and created them with zeal.
Ancient times , the first city in the world to reach one million inhabitants
Jericho and
Çatalhöyük, dated to the
eighth millennium BC, are among the earliest
proto-cities known to archaeologists. However, the
Mesopotamian city of
Uruk from the mid-fourth millennium BC (ancient Iraq) is considered by most archaeologists to be the first true city, innovating many characteristics for cities to follow, with its name attributed to the
Uruk period. In the
fourth and
third millennium BC, complex civilizations flourished in the river valleys of
Mesopotamia,
India,
China, and
Egypt. Excavations in these areas have found the
ruins of cities geared variously towards trade, politics, or religion. Some had large,
dense populations, but others carried out urban activities in the realms of politics or religion without having large associated populations. Among the early Old World cities,
Mohenjo-daro of the Indus Valley civilization in present-day
Pakistan, existing from about 2600 BC, was one of the largest, with a population of 50,000 or more and a
sophisticated sanitation system.
China's planned cities were constructed according to sacred principles to act as celestial
microcosms. The
Ancient Egyptian cities known physically by archaeologists are not extensive. In Mesopotamia, the civilization of
Sumer, followed by
Assyria and
Babylon, gave rise to numerous cities, governed by kings and fostered multiple languages written in
cuneiform. The
Phoenician trading empire, flourishing around the turn of the
first millennium BC, encompassed
numerous cities extending from
Tyre,
Cydon, and
Byblos to
Carthage and
Cádiz. In the following centuries, independent
city-states of
Greece, especially
Athens, developed the
polis, an association of male landowning
citizens who collectively constituted the city. The
agora, meaning "gathering place" or "assembly", was the center of the athletic, artistic, spiritual, and political life of the polis.
Rome was the first city that surpassed one million inhabitants. Under the authority of
its empire, Rome transformed and
founded many cities (), and with them brought its principles of urban architecture, design, and society. In the ancient
Americas, early urban traditions developed in the
Andes and
Mesoamerica. In the Andes, the first urban centers developed in the
Norte Chico civilization,
Chavin and
Moche cultures, followed by major cities in the
Huari,
Chimu, and
Inca cultures. The Norte Chico civilization included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the
Norte Chico region of north-central coastal
Peru. It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, flourishing between the 30th and 18th centuries BC. Mesoamerica saw the rise of early urbanism in several cultural regions, beginning with the
Olmec and spreading to the
Preclassic Maya, the
Zapotec of Oaxaca, and
Teotihuacan in central Mexico. Later cultures such as the
Aztec,
Andean civilizations,
Mayan,
Mississippians, and
Pueblo peoples drew on these earlier urban traditions. Many of their ancient cities continue to be inhabited, including major metropolitan cities such as
Mexico City, in the same location as
Tenochtitlan; while ancient continuously inhabited Pueblos are near modern urban areas in
New Mexico, such as
Acoma Pueblo near the
Albuquerque metropolitan area and
Taos Pueblo near
Taos; while others like
Lima are located nearby ancient
Peruvian sites such as
Pachacamac. From 1600 BC,
Dhar Tichitt, in the south of present-day
Mauritania, presented characteristics suggestive of an incipient form of urbanism. The second place to show urban characteristics in
West Africa was
Dia, in present-day
Mali, from 800 BC. More recently, scholars have concluded that the
civilization of Djenne-Djenno was likely established by the
Mande progenitors of the
Bozo people. Their habitation of the site spanned the period from 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE. Archaeological evidence from Jenné-Jeno, specifically the presence of non-West African glass beads dated from the third century BCE to the fourth century CE, indicates that pre-Arabic trade contacts probably existed between Jenné-Jeno and North Africa. Additionally, other early urban centers in West Africa, dated to around 500 CE, include
Awdaghust,
Kumbi Saleh, the ancient capital of Ghana, and
Maranda, a center located on a trade route between Egypt and Gao.
Middle Ages in Leningrad Oblast has existed since the 13th century. , Netherlands of the
Holy Roman Empire in 1648 in the Netherlands, created around 1550, shows the city completely surrounded by a
city wall and
defensive canal, with its square shape inspired by the shape of
Jerusalem. The
dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West was connected with profound changes in urban fabric of western Europe. In places where Roman administration quickly weakened urbanism went through a profound crisis, even if it continued to remain an important symbolic factor. In regions like Italy or Spain cities diminished in size but nevertheless continued to play a key role in both the economy and government.
Late antique cities in the East were also undergoing intense transformations, with increased political participation of the crowds and demographic fluctuations. Christian communities and their doctrinal differences increasingly shaped the urban fabric. The locus of power shifted to
Constantinople and to the
ascendant Islamic civilization with its major cities
Baghdad,
Cairo, and
Córdoba. From the 9th through the end of the 12th century,
Constantinople, the capital of the
Eastern Roman Empire, was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, with a population approaching 1 million. The
Ottoman Empire gradually gained
control over many cities in the Mediterranean area, including
Constantinople in 1453. In the
Holy Roman Empire, beginning in the 12th century,
free imperial cities such as
Nuremberg,
Strasbourg,
Frankfurt,
Basel,
Zürich, and
Nijmegen became a privileged elite among towns having won self-governance from their local lord or having been granted self-governance by the emperor and being placed under his immediate protection. By 1480, these cities, as far as still part of the empire, became part of the
Imperial Estates governing the empire with the emperor through the
Imperial Diet. By the 13th and 14th centuries, some cities had become powerful states, taking surrounding areas under their control or establishing extensive maritime empires. In Italy,
medieval communes developed into
city-states including the
Republic of Venice and the
Republic of Genoa. In Northern Europe, cities including
Lübeck and
Bruges formed the
Hanseatic League for collective defense and commerce. Their power was later
challenged and eclipsed by the
Dutch commercial
cities of
Ghent,
Ypres, and
Amsterdam. Similar phenomena existed elsewhere, as in the case of
Sakai, which enjoyed considerable autonomy in late medieval Japan. In the first millennium AD, the
Khmer capital of
Angkor in Cambodia grew into the most extensive
preindustrial settlement in the world by area, covering over and possibly supporting up to one million people.
West Africa already had cities before the
Common Era, but the consolidation of
Trans-Saharan trade in the Middle Ages multiplied the number of cities in the region, as well as making some of them very populous, notably
Gao (72,000 inhabitants in 800 AD),
Oyo-Ile (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD, and may have reached up to 140,000 inhabitants in the 18th century),
Ile-Ifẹ̀ (70,000 to 105,000 inhabitants in the 14th and 15th centuries),
Niani (50,000 inhabitants in 1400 AD) and
Timbuktu (100,000 inhabitants in 1450 AD).
Early modern In the West, nation-states became the dominant unit of political organization following the
Peace of Westphalia in the seventeenth century. Western Europe's larger capitals (London and Paris) benefited from the growth of commerce following the emergence of an
Atlantic trade. However, most towns remained small. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the old Roman city concept was extensively used. Cities were founded in the middle of the newly conquered territories and were bound to several laws regarding administration, finances, and urbanism.
Industrial age The
growth of the modern industry from the late 18th century onward led to massive
urbanization and the rise of new great cities, first in Europe and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. England led the way as
London became the capital of a
world empire and cities across the country grew in locations strategic for
manufacturing. In the United States from 1860 to 1910, the
introduction of railroads reduced transportation costs, and large manufacturing centers began to emerge, fueling migration from rural to city areas. Some industrialized cities were confronted with health challenges associated with
overcrowding,
occupational hazards of industry, contaminated water and air,
poor sanitation, and communicable diseases such as
typhoid and
cholera.
Factories and
slums emerged as regular features of the urban landscape.
Post-industrial age In the second half of the 20th century,
deindustrialization (or "
economic restructuring") in the West led to
poverty,
homelessness, and
urban decay in formerly prosperous cities. America's "Steel Belt" became a "
Rust Belt" and cities such as
Detroit, Michigan, and
Gary, Indiana began to
shrink, contrary to the global trend of massive urban expansion. Such cities have shifted with varying success into the
service economy and
public-private partnerships, with concomitant
gentrification, uneven
revitalization efforts, and selective cultural development. Under the
Great Leap Forward and subsequent
five-year plans continuing today,
China has undergone concomitant
urbanization and
industrialization and become the world's leading
manufacturer. Amidst these economic changes,
high technology and instantaneous
telecommunication enable select cities to become centers of the
knowledge economy. A new
smart city paradigm, supported by institutions such as the
RAND Corporation and
IBM, is bringing computerized
surveillance, data analysis, and
governance to bear on cities and city dwellers. Some companies are building brand-new
master-planned cities from scratch on
greenfield sites. == Urbanization ==